Description

Although actually a series of rocks, they're all pretty similiar in character and just easier to describe as one - so here we go:

Luther Spires are a series of granite spires with easy to moderate climbs established and many more waiting for power-drill-based-attention.

Luther Spires is newly developed and as such, there is still a lot of rock that can break off, but the granite seems pretty sturdy beneath.

Getting There

Out from the parking lot, you'll find a clearing with the trail heading through it.

Follow this trail across a better established trail and follow it as it hops on a large downed tree to cross a stream. Upon crossing the stream, the trail traverses up the hillside for about 10 minutes until you find yourself directly beneath the spires. Then the trail get steep until you find yourself at the base of two spires. Jackass is the intimidating bolted route on the left spire and Just Jerry is to the right.

Widow Maker is claimed to be one of the best face climbs at Luther Spires and it certainly is a challenging and fun route! This is one of the two furthest left and furthest up routes in the Supertopo South Lake Tahoe Climbing guide book by Chris McNamara. There are two ways to get to the route. Once you arrive at the Spires from the approach path, walk left. After only 30-40 feet the path either leads up along the spires or down to underneath all the spires. The only reason to go up is to g...[more]Browse More Classics in CA

Directions are right on! Just want to add a couple comments.... After driving passed the Big Meadow Trailhead signs, the small parking area on the left approaches very fast. The boulder with the beer bottle size hole in it is the key landmark. As a matter of fact there are several boulders with drilled holes in them. After walking through clearing the path will come upon and cross the Rim Trail path. Continue along and you will find the tip of a large fallen dead tree crossing the path. For fun, jump on it and head downhill along the tree trunk and across the stream. Chris McNamara's guidebook South Lake Tahoe Climbing says that the approach is 20-30 minutes with a few hundred feet elevation gain. We made the approach in 30 minutes but the elevation gain seemed more like 600-700' and it nearly killed us all! Now I must admit our packs were heavy. My pack was loaded with the following... 60m rope, 12 quickdraws, standard fairly complete rack, good set of slings and locking biners, helmet, shoes, harness, guidebook, 2 liters of water, some food, and convinced that Bud Lite would save some weight, a six pack and 5 lbs of ice. I know I know, what was I thinking... Next time I will spend more time properly planning and packing only what I would definitely need. I have to concentrate and focus on why and what is the main purpose of the trip...

Definitely have to cut down on the gear! : )

The good news is that at the end of the day, the walk out is downhill, mostly in the shade, and is beautiful and my pack was MUCH lighter!

I found the climbing here generally uninspiring. There are a lot of easy to moderate sport routes so there is that attraction, but if you're looking for much higher quality sport climbing in SLT I would recommend the nearby Luther Rock (sucky approach but morning shade) or Mayhem Cove (2 minute approach, afternoon shade.)

Yea, that Jay Smith got to alot of my lines down in Red Rocks too. I recently heard from a climber that Jay had the luxury of a trust fund and so wasn't constrained by that typical burden. Don't know if that is true or not but it could explain some of his productivity.

The trail leading to the crag begins at: 38.793950,-119.996265. It is approximately 0.7 miles long and total elevation gain is about 650 feet. Even in May the air was quite dry - bring at least 3 quarts of water per person.

As of 9/26/2011, there is construction along Hwy 89 so the approach beta is a little hard to follow. The best way to find the trailhead is to go to the GPS coordinates George mentioned (38.793950,-119.996265), which are at a turnout about .4 miles past the Big Meadows trailhead on the left. Once you walk down the clearing stay to your left, and then look for a little climbers trail that splits off and veers right. Right away you should see a big tree that goes over a stream, so that's how you know you are on the correct trail. Make sure to stay left after the clearing because to the right there is a large mountain bikers trail with another tree crossing a stream (currently marked with a "Detour" sign) and that is the wrong trail.

The Supertopo guide lists a climb just to the left of Mixed Emotions called Ringlock. It's supposed to be a 10a bolted line on the same spire as Mixed Emotions and See Thru. I've looked for it a few times and haven't been able to find it. Am I missing something or is this an error in the book? thx

It has been quite a few years since I last visited the Spires, but if recall correctly, I also tried several times to find Ringlock but was never able to. I was always curious as to whether there was an error in the book or whether I was just slow in the brain. I would be interested to hear from someone who knows the answer....about the error that is (I already know that I'm slow in the frontal lobe).

I was up there last weekend, also looking for Ringlock. I'm guessing that the guide isn't quite right...I think there's a bolted line to the right of the 5.8OW, then the 5.8, then the crack to face (that seems to line up with the Mixed Emotions description).

Fun non-commiting climbing (except Jane Spy) on great clean rock in a beautiful setting with spectacular views of Meiss Country. Not sure why it took me so long to finally climb here. I felt the approach was easier than Sugarloaf, though it does get hot in the middle of the summer here.

I was finding the approach beta on this site to be a bit confusing, but once we go there it was actually pretty easy. There are tons of holes in tons of boulders in tons of pullouts off of the road, all seemed to be smaller than a beer bottle... so that description wasn't too helpful. Look up the GPS coordinates on google maps (38.7938, -119.99575), you'll see that there are three turnouts back-to-back (first two are adjacent, the third is separated by ~70ft or so), and you want the first one... the longest one. Walk directly away from the road, which takes you through the clearing, then you'll get to an intersection of trails; the options are left, right, and straight. Go straight. Now you are on an easy-to-follow use trail (which quickly crosses the creek on a downed tree, as described), and then follow it all the way to the crag. The altimeter on my watch gave a height gain of about 500ft, which is pretty consistent with the google topo view.

The climbs are great, just be careful as a few of the routes are a bit chossy with loose flakes.